558 Luca Mazzinghi Life appears to Qoheleth in all its pain and toil (lm[; ˆny[), in all its inconsistency and even in its absurdity (lbh), but consists also in that labour of seeking and exploring which God himself has given to humanity (1,13; 3,10-11). In this laborious search, the human explorer undoubtedly experiences the dark side of God but, at the same time, discovers that God is the giver of life and joy, that in “fearing God”, “eating and drinking”, the daily joys of life, can be rediscovered as those signs of a presence which is certainly limited and mysterious but nonetheless always real and not necessarily negative. In conclusion, Qoheleth does not describe his God as an absent divinity or as an unjust or even violent God. He is simply beyond all possibility of comprehension: “the absurdity of evil is a demonstration of man’s incapacity to decipher the will of God which is unfathomable and inaccessible” (47). Certainly there exists in the book of Qoheleth an unresolved tension between the experience of life, which leads Qoheleth to reflect on the absurdity of violence, and faith in the biblical God, who should be proclaimed as the comforter of this same violence. What makes the book of Qoheleth still passionate today, and, in many aspects, contemporary, is his having succeeded in maintaining a strong position between the two extremes: on the one hand, the experience of humanity itself, and, on the other, the fear of God, that is faith in the One who allows human beings to lay claim to the little joys of daily life, joys that are limited but real signs of his presence. Via della Chiesa 123 Luca MAZZINGHI 50036 Bivigliano - Vaglia (FI) SUMMARY In the face of violence, Qoheleth’s answer: “There is no one to console them” (Qoh 4,1) seems to be a hostile allusion aimed at God (cf. Isa 40,1) who is considered responsible for that violence. Yet Qoheleth’s God is not an abstract and remote deity; Qoheleth’s criticism is directed rather at the God of retribution (cf. Qoh 9,1-3). By stressing divine transcendence, Qoheleth considers that God is beyond all human comprehension (cf. 8,16-17). In Qoheleth one cannot speak of divine violence, but there is the problem of human language about God. Man can only “fear God” and accept the joy that God grants him as a gift in his fleeting life. Adam”: cf. H. SIMIAN-YOFRE, “Conoscere la sapienza. Qohelet e Gen 2-3”, BELLA-PASSARO (eds.), Il libro del Qohelet, 335. (47) D’ALARIO, “L’assurdità del male”, 197.